My wife got this for me for Christmas and it's just the thing to put some gain, impedance matching and EQ into a Stickup. It also in a mini-mixer which will take your Stickup down to mono or output discrete right and left. I'm sure it would add a lot to any type of Stick pickup. Mucho gain available plus simple but very musical EQ. Nice small size will fit easily on a minimal pedalboard or tuck into the pocket of your gig bag for those times you may end up playing thru strange systems or a single input amp. Andy Salvanos turned me on to it as an alternative to a Step About. His recent CDs are recorded thru one. Pascal Glanville uses one too. They're around $212. Custom made in the UK. http://www.sfxsound.co.uk/sp2/

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I've owned one for years. It's a great sounding preamp, solidly built and super quiet. Very nice quality. I've primarily used mine in my studio as part of my recording chain, but it would be great as part of a pedalboard based live rig. Or, just plug it into a high quality powered speaker and you're super portable. Great communication too. I emailed several times with Max on some ideas and questions. Could not have been more informative and pleasant. Two thumbs up for sure.

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Tue Feb 21, 2017 5:04 am

calypsocool

Multiple Donor

Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2009 5:02 pmPosts: 55Location: Surrey UK

Re: sfx SP-2 Stick Preamp

Yep....got one!!

I've also got one of their "thumpinator" pedals that rolls of the subsonic, essentially making your bass amp much more efficient, by cutting down on signals below the hearing threshold that wastes wattage!!

Indeed, this device is top notch and I agree with what's said above. The SP2 is sturdy, small enough to be packed in the gig bag, works with a standard 9v power supply. The mono output is also very convenient when, at jam sessions, you have to play with only one bass amp. The EQ section is less developed than the StepABout, but is still very musical, and you have far more gain available without any hiss. Working with Max is fantastic, his response are always well detailed and very clear for newbies such as me. I still have a stepabout at home but I don't use it for some reasons.The MX-16 is a custom work he did for me. The inspiration is clearly coming from the routing section of the StepABout imagined by Greg Howard, but i felt frustrated with the location of the switches, so I designed the device to be able to stomp all the switches at the same time, or stomp two of them simultaneously without touching the other. and I needed a smaller footprint to be able to fit it on a small pedalboard.

The TRS input, ironically, is the showstopper for me. Seems like that's the whole point, right? Fewer inputs. I (continue to) hear good things about this pre-amp and I like that the manufacturer is so responsive. Good show sfxsound.

Actually you can build a 15 foot TRS to TRS cable for about $10 in about 15 minutes. You can modify a standard XLR mic cable or just make it from scratch which is what I did. Plus I'm certain you can buy such a cable online if it came down to that. What the SP-2 does not have is an FX loop. But there are still several ways to play thru one or two amps with one or two FX chains. What Ido like is that it can make a Stickup active, give it some EQ, clean boost and a mono or stereo capability.

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